Ephesians 6:11-13 "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand..."
"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:11-13 RSV).
Question:
Is the armor of God the knowledge of being oneness with God? Is the devil or adversary your ego? Is the evil day any time you are living in the consciousness of your ego? Are the principalities, powers and rulers of darkness of this world the energies produced by all humans living from their ego. If so can these energies have an independent will or become a physical manifestation? Many thanks for your time.
Comment:
Certainly we can be said to "put on the whole armor of God" when we fully embrace our Oneness with God, so that our creative choices express that Oneness in our lives and in the world. I don’t think of the devil or adversary as one individual’s ego consciousness, but as the cumulative effect of ego consciousness in the world. It is not a power opposite to God, but rather the expression of ignorance—a failure to know or believe the Presence of God in each of us and the spiritual law according to which that Presence expresses through us. These energies have no reality in spiritual Truth—they dissipate once the ignorance is dissolved—but they can be very powerful and challenging to deal with in terms of our human experience. Like any ideas we hold in consciousness, thoughts based in ignorance can express in the tangible world. But they cannot become a unique and separate power that is "not God." So, for example, there is no person who is “purely evil.” Even in those who seem totally lost in ignorance, God is present as the energy of Life and as the potential for Light and Love. Blessings!
Rev. Ed